July 03, 2010

San Francisco's Zare Flytrap

Zare Flytrap in San Francisco's SOMA district immediately impresses as you walk into the restaurant.

The food has a Persian influence, brought by chef and owner Hoss Zare. The building itself is historical and housed a restaurant under different management called Flytrap without "Zare" as part of its name. Since 2008, the new chef brings in incredients from local Bay Area farms and markets.

Zare was born in Tabriz Iran and immigrated to San Francisco in the mid-eighties. Prior to opening the "new Flytrap," he has experience at South Park's Ristorante Ecco and Aromi on Polk Street - both in San Francisco.

Below was my favorite, the pistachio meatball starter served with harissa-honey pomegranate glaze.

Also wonderful was the wild mushroom cake with asparagus and lemon confit.

One of the main courses we sampled was the flavorful grilled moroccan-style wild salmon served with toasted fregola, blue lake green beans and charmoula.

A little on the rich side but also incredibly tender was their lamb shank abgusht which they dished up with black-eyed beans and fingerling potatoes torshi.

While certainly tasty but not as uniquely presesented was the butter lettuce salad with parma prosciutto and a tarragon-mustard vinaigrette.

What I didn't try but would like to on a future trip was the braised Italian eggplant with sun-dried yogurt, walnuts and crispy onions. The other thing that will bring me back is the warm ambience and historical feel in the restaurant itself as well as the vibrant bar - I will likely have dinner at the bar next time around. I do wish however that they had more diverse wine choices by the glass.